Many walking assist devices are known in the prior art. The most common are canes, crutches, walkers and the like. The cane typically consists of a shaft having at one end a hand grip and at the other a padded surface to facilitate gripping the ground or floor. The padded surface also assists in preventing marking of a soft surface or floor. Multi-leg canes are also known in the prior art which have a plurality of padded end pieces which flare out from the center shaft to provide increased stability.
Another common walking assist device is a crutch usually used as a temporary assist device for people with injuries to their legs. Crutches also have one or more shafts which contact the ground and which may have a padded end piece to facilitate gripping and to prevent marring of the floor. A crutch may have a hand grip and a padded top piece which fits under the arm of the user.
Also known in the prior art are walkers and the like which typically consist of three or four legs attached at the top to a hand railing portion which can be alternately leaned upon or used to lift the walker and move it forward. The legs also typically have padded end pieces to facilitate gripping and to prevent marring of the floor.
Other walking assist devices are also known in the prior art. All of the walking assist devices in the prior art have a common goal of stabilizing a frail person. The variety of frailties are many fold; however, the common feature is to minimize exhaustion of the walking person and to prevent falling. The padded end pieces on the walking assist device aid in preventing slipping of the device on dry surfaces. Usually the end pieces are selected from a resilient material such as rubber which aids in gripping in wet or dry surfaces. The resiliency of the end pieces, however, fails to provide traction on some surfaces making the use of the walking assist devices treacherous. In situations such as attempting to walk on ice with a walking assist device, the walking assist device may lose its traction causing the person to fall and become injured. Thus, the walking assist devices in some situations such as slippery or icy surfaces become unusable or hazardous.